


Ready to Close My Eyes

by petratishkovna



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Puppies, Werewolves, bruce is harry and louis' dog shh, niall horan: everyone's fave and everyone's third, this is literally just a bunch of drabbles that sometimes are connected i'm so sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-10
Updated: 2015-07-10
Packaged: 2018-04-08 17:06:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4313289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petratishkovna/pseuds/petratishkovna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry believed Louis immediately, but Harry was pretty sure that was partially to do with the fact that he had already been convinced they were soulmates and they’d get married outdoors somewhere in the Spring. Louis could have told him anything crazy—I’m a werewolf, for example—and harry would have gone to war to prove its accuracy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ready to Close My Eyes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tealcalm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tealcalm/gifts).



> WELCOME TO THE THING I SWORE I WOULD NEVER DO
> 
> this is a shitty birthday present for chelsea who deserves this and every other fic about stuff we scream at each other except she probably deserves those fics to be a little better thought out and well-paced but instead of befriending someone like that almost 8 years ago she befriended me instead so i guess this is your lot in life
> 
> alright here's this
> 
> (title's from I Wanna be Your Dog by Iggy Pop because i'm just fuckign diving in also my url's petratishkovna if anyone for some reason thinks this is a reason to be my friend)

It’s twenty minutes until show time, and Liam’s thinking about _Baby Mama._

Besides the fact that it’s really just quite a good film (it is, _Zayn,_ maybe you just weren’t paying attention), he’s thinking specifically about the way Amy Poehler walked while she was pregnant in it. Liam had thought that maybe her waddle had been a little exaggerated, her movements just a little too obviously pregnant to be believable.

Liam understands now that he’s an idiot.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit,” he mutters to himself, holding onto the bump under his hoodie pocket as gently as possible. He adds, “shit shit shitfuckshit,” for good measure as he rounds a corner.

He’s definitely waddling, and he’s grateful that the corridor he’s trying to dart down is empty or else someone would think—he’s not actually sure exactly what they would think. As far as scandals go, _Liam Payne Found Smuggling Puppy_ isn’t the worst thing he can think of.

That doesn’t mean he’s going to let it happen, though. Louis would kill him.

Finally, after what feels like hours of maneuvering around the crew and whoever else happened to be backstage, he makes it to the game room and pushes the door open with his side carefully, still holding onto the puppy in his hoodie pocket.

“There’s a problem,” Liam says to the boys (all, miraculously, in one place). Three sets of eyes immediately look down at his stomach.

“What sort of problem?” Harry asks, already getting up from the couch and edging closer to where Liam’s standing. Liam’s pretty sure Harry knows what sort of problem they have, but he carefully pulls the sleeping puppy out of his pocket. He whines lightly, but settles once Harry has a hold of him.

“What happened?” Zayn asks.

“We were just hanging out in the other room and I left for a minute to grab something to show him and then when I came back he wasn’t there but I walked into the hall and I found…” Liam trails off, gesturing weakly to the puppy Harry’s holding.

“It’s not, like, time for it, though,” Harry says, looking down at the puppy worriedly. “D’you think something upset him?”

“Yeah Liam, what’d you do?” Niall asks, very unhelpfully if Liam’s being honest.

“I didn’t do anything!” He answers, flailing his arms slightly. He thinks back to the conversation he and Louis had been having before all of this. “I mean, I didn’t let him win at crazy 8’s, but I let him win last time and we’d decided that I was allowed to win!”

“I doubt that’s what would have caused it,” Zayn says, patting Liam on the arm, and, honestly, why does he even talk to members of this band that aren’t Zayn.

“I guess it doesn’t matter for now how it happened,” Niall shrugs, “s’long as we can figure out what we’re gonna do about it.”

“We can’t cancel the show,” Zayn says, “not this late in.”

“We’ll just have to give them an excuse I guess,” Harry adds, peering closely at the puppy he’s holding. “Why he’s not here.”

“And then just leave him in here alone?” Liam demands. He’s not sure if the others are fully grasping the situation.

“We don’t have much choice otherwise, do we?” Zayn says. He doesn’t look happy about it, exactly, but he’s getting up from the couch anyway.

“Where are you going?” Liam asks. His voice is possibly, slightly, a little bit hysterical.

“Gonna find someone, tell them Lou’s sick or something. We have to be out there in ten minutes.”

As if Liam didn’t know that, he thinks, but he watches Zayn make his way towards the door, opening it—

\--and walking right into Louis.

“Jesus, there you are,” he’s saying, ruffling his own hair to make it his own approximation of stage-ready. “Leave for half a second and—“

Louis stills when he realizes everyone is staring at him, and he looks around at the boys for the first time since he’s come in the room. Immediately, his eyes lock onto the puppy in Harry’s arms.

“Are you fucking kidding me,” he says flatly, leveling Liam with such a look he’s actually seriously afraid before he remembers that, A, Louis would never actually _hurt_ him, probably, and B, Liam can bench press him.

“Okay,” Liam’s quick to jump to his own defense, standing up and putting his arms up. “But you have to admit it wasn’t completely off-base. You leave, and then I find him, and he kind of looks like, y’know,  and—“

“Wait,” Niall says suddenly, interrupting him. “Whose dog did you steal then, Li?"

* * *

 

It had taken a lot to get everyone on board with the _werewolf_ thing.

Liam had looked as if he was about to burst into tears, and Harry had winced out of sympathy. If Louis was lying, that probably fell under that thing about _not taking this seriously enough_ that Liam had been talking about their whole first day in the bungalow.

(Harry believed Louis immediately, but Harry was pretty sure that was partially to do with the fact that he had already been convinced they were soulmates and they’d get married outdoors somewhere in the Spring. Louis could have told him anything crazy—I _’m a werewolf_ , for example—and harry would have gone to war to prove its accuracy.)

“Listen,” Louis had said, rubbing over his thighs nervously. “The only reason I’m even talking about this is because there’s a full moon tonight and I don’t want there to be any big secrets this early on.”

That had seemed to placate Liam a little, at least. Harry took a moment to marvel in the fact that Louis already knew how all of them ticked, individually and as a unit. He knew what they needed to hear. Harry moved the year of the wedding a little closer in his head.

“So what’s it look like, then?” Niall asked, seemingly unfazed by all of it. Harry spared a thought for the possibility that Niall was also planning on marrying Louis. He narrowed his eyes at him for a minute, but let it go.

“What’s what look like?” Louis asked.

“You,” Niall shrugged, gesturing vaguely around Louis. “Y’know, when you…” He made claws with his hands and growled for a little bit until Louis shoved him.

“I… wouldn’t know, actually,” Louis said, looking a little awkward now that it seemed like the boys were going to believe him.

“Is it like a vampire thing?” Harry asked. “Like, how they can’t see their reflections?”

“Are vampires real too?” Niall tacked on. “Do you get along with them?”

Louis blinked once, slowly, at the pair of them.

“I wouldn’t know because I haven’t changed yet,” Louis said, and he was definitely blushing now, as if the other four were going to know when the proper age for a werewolf to change would be.

“Is that safe?” Liam asked suddenly. He clammed up when four heads turned to look at him expectantly. “Uh. I mean, like, if you become a wolf, and you’ve never done it before, couldn’t you, like… Hurt someone?”

Louis didn’t say anything, but Harry was fairly offended on his behalf. Before he could jump to his defense, though, Louis spoke up.

“I don’t know if you could call it a proper wolf,” he said with a shrug. “I mean, my mum’s sort of, like, the alpha of our area? But she just looks like a big dog when she’s changed.”

“Not wolfy,” Zayn spoke up, nodding like that made sense.

“Right,” Louis grinned at him. “I don’t think it’s about, like, the _wolf_ part of it. Not like how it is in movies. More about, like, family and loyalty.”

“So you’re gonna look like a dog?” Niall said, perking up again. “Like what kind of dog?”

“How would I know that?” Louis demanded, frustrated. He flopped down on the sofa beside (and half on top of) Harry, whose stomach did a happy little flip at the contact.   
“Maybe you’ll be one of them racing dogs,” Niall pondered. “Could bet on you, make us rich.”

Harry wasn’t sure if Niall was joking or not, so he curled into Louis more, wrapping an arm around his middle. He felt Louis shudder and then relax into it, and Harry had to hide his smile into the back of Louis’s head.

“My mum said I’d be fine here for it,” he said then, looking around the room. “Just to, like, have you all around and make sure I stay calm.”

“You didn’t have to stay for it,” Harry murmured into his hair. “If you want to be with your family for it, we don’t mind.”

“S’okay,” Louis replied. “I trust you.”

Harry felt lit up from the inside.

“So, what, do we just wait for it to happen?” Zayn asked.

“Is it like a midnight thing?” Niall added. “Or, like, sunset? Moon… rise?”

Louis shot both of them a look, squirming his way under Harry’s arm and bringing his feet up onto the couch.

“Mum said I’d just feel kind of… clingy, right, and then once it gets dark out I’m supposed to be somewhere with lots of space.”

“Clingy is right,” Zayn said, smirking at Louis from across the room.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Louis replied from his new perch on Harry’s lap, head tucked into his neck.

Harry was pretty sure he was going to pass out.

“’Sides, Harry doesn’t mind, right?” Louis asked. He said it casually, but this close (so close oh _god_ ) Harry could see the genuine question.

“Of course not,” he says, squeezing Louis around his waist. It was possibly too early for Harry to have a favourite part of the boy on his lap, but it was also too late for him not to.

“Well you won’t be waiting much longer,” Liam said, gesturing to the window where the sun was setting.

“Do you feel any different?” Harry asked, mostly into Louis’ temple.

“I don’t really know,” he replied. “I think maybe?”

Harry squeezed him a little tighter once he noticed the way Louis was shaking, a bright thrum of nervous energy going through him and making him twitchy.

“Should we go outside?” Harry asked.

“Could do,” Louis replied, nodding too quickly and not making any moves to get off of Harry’s lap.

“We’ll stay with you, yeah?” He asked, standing up and taking Louis with him. He paused to see if there were going to be any complaints, but Louis just snuffled and curled himself closer, his eyes shutting.

“Think it’s close,” he said, “You smell… like, more. Better.”

“More Better?” Zayn asked, eyebrow raised.

Louis shook his head. “No, like, the same, just more intense. Stronger.”

The boys made their way outside, forming a little semicircle around Louis, who Harry placed on the ground as gently as he could. He told himself that the little whimper Louis let out once he had let him go would have happened no matter who had been carrying him.

“I, uh,” Louis flushed. “I don’t know if my clothes would like, transfer to me as a wolf? So I don’t know what would be okay, but…”

“Take it off, man,” Niall said, waving his hand like Harry hadn’t just died a thousand times over.

“If you’re comfortable with that,” he added quickly.

“Suppose I have to be,” Louis said, laughing nervously. Despite that, he stopped once his shirt was off.

“So okay,” He said once he was settled. “Mum said it should happen quickly, and it shouldn’t hurt or anything. And then I’ll be… like that, for the rest of the night and maybe a bit of the morning. It’ll be me, but different? I mean, I might not remember what happened when I’m, like, back.”

“Got it,” Niall said, giving a thumbs up that seemed a little too casual given the situation.

“Okay,” Louis said, nodding a little to himself. “Okay.”

Harry wasn’t sure if he wanted to watch, but he thought that if he turned away it would only upset Louis more, so he waited with everyone else. When Louis’ breathing started to pick up, he fought the urge to cover his eyes and watched the boy in front of him begin to twitch and squirm, his limbs moving at unnatural angles, and Louis’ mum had to have been lying, because it couldn’t feel okay, he had to be feeling some pain, and then Louis made a sharp noise from the back of his throat and it was over.

The boys stood and stared at what Louis had turned into, none of them saying a word. Harry didn’t know how to react, what would make the situation better or worse as he locked his human eyes with Louis’ new canine ones.

In the end, Niall was the one to break the silence.

“Oh my god _aww.”_

* * *

 _It’s-fine-love-call-me-Jay_ hasn’t stopped laughing since Harry explained what had happened, which is too bad because Harry’s about a second away from losing his mind.

“Okay, but,” he starts once Jay takes a second to breathe. “What do we do?”

Jay’s still trying to collect herself, but she manages to explain that, apparently, stranger things have happened than a wolf being more like a _puppy._

A tiny brown puppy looking up at Harry from his lap while Niall cooed at him from across the room.

“He’s going to be so _angry,_ ” Jay said, her laughter starting up again.

“But, he’s, like… okay?”

“That chip he’s got on his shoulder’ll about double,” she replied, and then, after her laughter calmed down again, she continued, “But he’ll be fine. In a day or two he’ll be back to himself.”

Harry nods, but when he remembers Jay can’t see him, he says, “Alright. I guess you’re the expert.”

Jay laughs, clearly not convinced that Harry’s fears have been put to rest.

“Here love,” she says, “put me on speaker and I’ll talk to him.”

Harry does just that, holding the phone down towards Louis’ face. He’s pretty sure Jay’s just humouring him, since, like, don’t dogs have super hearing? Harry’s no expert, so he doesn’t say anything.

“Louis,” Jay’s voice says, stretching it out into a little tune.

Louis’ head tilts. Niall looks like he’s going to explode.

“He did the… Y’know, the dog head-tilt thing,” Harry says, and then rushes to correct himself. “I mean, the… werewolf… uh…”

“You’re fine,” Jay laughs. Harry’s pretty sure she stopped laughing _with_ him a while ago.

After she tells Harry three more times (and Niall twice) that Louis will, in fact, be fine, she hangs up, and the boys stare at each other, not sure what to do next. It’s one thing to take a spontaneous vacation with four boys you barely know, but it’s entirely another when one of them becomes a puppy.

Louis yawns, and Niall lets out a little whimper at the sight.

“He’s so _cute,”_ he says. “I know he’s going to hate me for saying it, but he’s _so_ cute.”

Harry’s inclined to agree, but he’s pretty sure he’d think that regardless of what kind of werewolf Louis was.  

“I guess he must be pretty tired,” Liam says. It’s the first thing he’s said in a while, and Harry’s glad he’s gotten over the initial shock. “That was probably stressful.”

Right on cue, Louis yawns again, his little mouth opening wide so everyone can see all his teeth. It’s possibly the cutest thing Harry’s ever seen, and before he even knows what he’s doing he picks him up and holds him close to his chest.

“I guess we know where he’s sleeping tonight,” Zayn says with a little smirk that Harry immediately decides to ignore.

Everyone decides to turn in quickly after, the shock of learning their new bandmate is a werewolf and then watching him prove it taking a lot out of them. Harry feels weird about going in a bed, so he just lays on the couch, carefully adjusting Louis. He’s already half-asleep, and he curls up into a ball half on Harry’s neck. He feels Louis lick his collarbone for a second before seeming to realize what he’s doing and stop abruptly.

Harry falls asleep wondering if he can count that as their first kiss.

* * *

The thing with Louis being a puppy a couple nights a month is he isn’t very good at it yet.

Harry doesn’t quite know how they’ve managed it, but no one in the X Factor house knows why Louis disappears some nights.

Well. They know why he disappears _most_ nights and Harry guesses they just assume the puppy nights are more of the same.

Tonight was one of those nights, and Harry’s spent most of the day accommodating Louis’ heightened need for attention. The few times he’s been alone, talking to one of the boys or someone else in the house, had all been interrupted by Louis ducking down to shove his head under Harry’s arm until Harry pulled him in close, continuing his conversation.

So. Not that unusual, really.

Now, though, Louis was sitting in front of him, leaning his head on his paws. Everything had gone off without a hitch: Niall was standing guard outside, and Liam had his phone volume turned all the way up so he’d wake up if they needed him.

Louis didn’t seem to be as calm, little nose twitching while he sniffed the air. After the first time he transformed in the X Factor house, he had explained that all those people living in one house sent his dog nose a bit wild. Harry’d been hoping that he would get used to it, but by the looks of things it was just as bad this time around.

“Lou,” he murmurs down at him. Louis whips his head up, ears flopping and looking stupidly adorable. “You okay?”

Harry’s never sure what Louis’ll understand when he’s like this, or what he’ll remember when he’s human again. He told the lads it was sort of like waking up after a night out, piecing together all the things you’d done. Harry’s voice always seems to calm him, though, something Harry takes great pride in. _Niall_ gets him all yippy and run-y.

Even with that, though, Louis was on-edge tonight, and Harry didn’t quite know what to do. he didn’t think anything bad would happen if one of the other contestants found out about Louis, but Harry wanted Louis to be the one to tell them, if that’s what he wanted.

Of course, Louis’ puppy-self seemed to have other plans. Niall had opened the door just for a second to poke his head in, but that’s all Louis needed. Before Harry could grab him, he was out the door, sprinting through the house.

 _“Shit”_ Harry hissed, running after Louis with Niall right behind him. It was late enough that Harry didn’t think many contestants would be awake, but he was already trying to come up with excuses in case they ran into anyone.

Louis seemed to have a destination in mind, and Harry and Niall followed him straight to the stairs One Direction had recorded a video on the day before. Each step was about the size of Louis himself, but he managed to haul himself to the top before he stopped, turning around to face his bandmates.

“Now what?” Harry whispered, knowing he had to be the one to take over. Niall was never any use with Louis like this, always preferring to coo over him instead of actually help.

“Oh my _god,”_ Niall whispered, proving Harry’s point. “I think he’s stuck.”

Harry turned to look back at Louis, and, sure enough, he was whimpering, looking imploringly at Niall and Harry.

“What was the point of that, huh?” Harry asked. He was trying to be firm, but he was just as bad as Niall most of the time and he knew it.

Slowly, making sure Louis wasn’t going to run again, harry ventured up the stairs. He scooped Louis up without any issue, carrying him back to their room.

“That was dumb,” he informed Louis, who either didn’t understand what he was saying or didn’t care. Harry suspected it was the latter.

* * *

Louis’s sure he didn’t hear Niall right.

“What did you just say?” He asks.

Niall looks a little guilty. “Y’know,” he says, shrinking slightly. “Puppy moments. When you, like, forget you’re human sometimes.”

“I never _forget_ I’m human,” Louis scoffs. “Jesus, Niall, I’m always human on the inside.”

“Sure,” Liam interjects, “But sometimes, like, right after the moon, it’s sort of an adjustment period, right?”

“For an hour or something, _maybe,”_ Louis counters. “Give me one example.”

“Well yesterday we found you sleeping on a pile of clean laundry on the bus,” Harry offers, but he’s smiling so fondly Louis can’t really bring himself to yell at him for not being on his side.

“Exactly,” Louis says. _“Clean_ laundry. During the moon I probably wouldn’t care if it was clean or not.”

During the moon he would prefer to sleep as close to Harry as possible, but if that wasn’t an option the next best thing would be a laundry pile that hadn’t been washed yet. As long as it wasn’t disgusting, like the stuff they wore on stage every night, it was the best place to burrow into as a puppy. Everything was soft with use and smelled like his boys.

Louis doesn’t say that, though. That would not help his case right now.

“I’m always human,” he grumbles, just to be absolutely sure he gets the last word. No one says anything to dispute him, so he lets it go. Very graciously, he might add.

They lapse into relative silence for a while, all of them squished onto a couch watching whatever comes on the TV, until Louis slides off, laying down on the floor.

“How are you not dying up there?” He asks the group at large, fanning himself. He can feel himself start to sweat.

“S’not that bad, is it?” Liam asks, looking concerned.

“Are you feeling okay, Lou?” Harry adds.

Louis opens his mouth to say _yes, of course I am, why do you always worry so much I’m an adult I’m absolutely fine,_ except when he does he realizes that he’s going to be sick.

He just barely makes it to the bathroom in time, throwing up into the toilet while his bandmates stand at the door watching.

So. Not a high point, as far as his life goes.

“What was that about?” Niall asks, looking at a point somewhere above Louis’ head. Good thing, too, sympathy puker Louis knows he is.

Louis just groans, making his way back to the couch and flopping himself down as well as he can without upsetting his stomach any more than it already is.

“Food poisoning or something, I don’t know,” he feels rather pathetic, and he hopes the lads realize that means he should be the centre of their attention.

“What did you eat?” Harry asks, lifting up Louis’ head just enough for him to sit down and letting Louis rest his head on his thigh.

“Dunno,” he says. He sort of just wants to take a nap, but that’s par for the course so soon after the full moon.

“Think about it,” Niall encourages him. “We all usually eat the same stuff, and I wanna know if I’ll be next.”

Louis gives it some thought, cataloguing everything he’d been snacking on, until he reaches--

“Oh god,” he says, scrubbing his hands over his face.

“What d’you think it is?” Liam asks.

“This doesn’t count,” he says. “This isn’t a fucking… _puppy moment,_ or whatever, okay? It doesn’t count if it’s, like, biological. I can’t help that.”

He’s met with three confused faces, until Harry’s lights up in recognition.

“Oh _Lou,”_ he says. Louis’ going to smack him. “You had that dairy milk bar, earlier, didn’t you?”

Niall bursts out laughing, and Louis glares in a way even he can admit probably doesn’t look very menacing.

“I guess my body was still adjusting,” he mumbles. “That’s a no-go on chocolate, I suppose.”

“Just for a little bit longer,” Harry assures him, even though he has no idea if what he’s saying is right. “Give it a day or two more and I’m sure you’ll be right back to normal, right?”

Louis doesn’t appreciate the way Niall and Liam are leaning on each other to laugh, or the way Harry looks like he’s trying very hard not to join them. He _does_ appreciate the fact that if he plays up the pitiful unwitting victim of doggy food poisoning thing he can get waited on hand and foot for the end of the day, though. Not the worst day.

* * *

Harry’s exhausted, the kind of bone-deep emotional exhaustion that could only be made worse by jetlag. It’s stupidly, bitterly cold, and he barely has the energy to thank the driver. Louis is the only reason he even makes it up the front steps. Not that Harry’s being dramatic in his state or anything, though.

The house is quiet when Harry lets himself in, but Louis’ boots are at the front door, which means he’s probably asleep. Harry goes up the stairs slowly, trying to be quiet. He’s home a little early, which he hopes makes Louis feel slightly better about the reason he was gone in the first place. Taylor had been decent about it, both of them deciding that Harry being miserable wasn’t going to help _either_ of them. Convincing everyone _else_ had been a bit of a stretch, but they managed.

And now Harry was home, and in his room, and Louis was nowhere to be seen.

Harry feels his brow furrow, and he walks closer to the bed. Of course, that’s when he realizes Louis _is_ there, just smaller and puppy-er than Harry had been expecting. It’s not a full moon, so Louis, for one reason or another, had chosen to transform.

“Hi,” Harry whispers, knowing Louis’ hearing is good enough like this to hear it even if he’s asleep. His eyes crack open, and his little body lets out a sigh.

“I know,” Harry says, feeling suddenly choked up. “I know, Lou.”

He doesn’t entirely know what to do, so he just gets into bed carefully beside him. It doesn’t take too long for Louis to lean up and rest his head on Harry’s arm, and Harry takes that as an invitation. He picks him up and places him on his chest, placing a steadying hand on his back.

“Got you something,” Harry says. He doesn’t know what’s supposed to help this situation. “Well, like. I guess I got it for me, but parts of it reminded me of you.”

Louis is listening attentively, but his eyes look more tired than they usually do like this. Harry knows he hasn’t been sleeping, because he hasn’t been either. Slowly, carefully, Harry removes Louis from his spot and leans over the end of the bed to get his book out of his rucksack.

“S’a book of poems,” Harry tells Louis once he’s back on his chest. “Like, love poems, that kind of thing.”

Louis tilts his head slowly, what would have been a tired _go on, then,_ if he was talking.

Harry clears his throat a little awkwardly, opening the book to one of the pages he has marked.

 _“When you are old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true--”_ he gives him a sad little smile, _“-- But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face.”_

Louis sighs again, but it seems more content than frustrated this time.

“There’s one more stanza, but it gets sad after that,” Harry explains. “I’d rather leave it there.”

He assumes Louis agrees, because he smushes his face against Harry’s chest.

Harry doesn’t mean to fall asleep, but when he wakes up it’s to a human Louis, beautiful and watching him.

“You’re back,” Harry says.

“So’re you,” Louis counters, and then wraps his arms around Harry’s middle, burrowing his face against Harry’s chest the way he’d done when he was a puppy.

“Are you okay?” Harry asks quietly, knowing how absolutely stupid the question is before he even asks it. Louis tenses.

“S’just, like. Sometimes it’s easier to only have to think about dog stuff,” he explains. “Sometimes. Recently.”

Harry’s heart breaks a little.

“It’s done now,” he tries. “We don’t have to worry about it ever again.”

“For now,” Louis mutters. Harry knows, he _knows_ Louis tried so hard to be okay the past few months.

“Forever,” Harry promises. “Never again. I don’t care what has to happen, but nothing like that is going to happen again.”

It’s nothing he can guarantee, but it makes the lines in Louis’ forehead get a little less pronounced, and that’s enough for now. Harry joins their hands, stretches out their arms so they line up.

“Cool tattoo,” he says, knocking their elbows together.

“Yours is alright,” Louis says, shrugging like he’s not bothered.

They’re okay.

* * *

“Did you know,” Louis says into Harry’s hair, “that our last nothing day was 37 years ago?”

“At least,” Harry agrees. Then he ruins it by adding, “Niall’s coming over later.”

“What?” Louis asks, yanking on Harry’s hair before he realizes what he’s doing. “But we haven’t had a nothing day in 52 years!”

Between meetings, contract signings, and five year plan discussions, nothing days’ve been farther and farther apart. This would be the first one in _months,_ a day for the two of them to watch terrible tv and yell at couples for picking the wrong house on _A Place in the Sun_ _._ They get to see each other every day while they’re working, but it’s a rare treat to be together in such a benign way, just the two of them.

Or, well. The two of them and Niall, apparently.

“Doesn’t Niall have another couple to try and squirm between?” Louis grumbles.

“Probably,” Harry says agreeably. “But he won’t be trying to squirm between us for another few hours, at least. If I don’t get out of bed I’m just going to fall asleep again, turn the TV on.”

“Thought you weren’t supposed to be a morning person,” Louis says, finding the remote.

“M’not,” Harry agrees, shoving his head under his pillow.

“People who aren’t morning people don’t plan to have guests over on lazy days,” Louis tells him. “And they _certainly_ don’t have the energy to be this annoying as soon as they wake up.”

“Rude,” Harry says, pulling his head up to glare weakly. Louis rolls his eyes and positions them so Harry’s leaning back, half on top of him, so Louis can rest his head on Harry’s shoulder.

And so that he’ll have an excuse not to get up when he decides he wants something. Louis’s no fool.

The doorbell rings some hazy amount of time later, when Louis’s letting himself drift in and out of what’s on the TV.

 _“What the fuck was that,”_ he yelps, sitting straight up and knocking Harry aside. “Baby, something happened, I don’t know, there was a noise and-- oh my god.”

Harry’s looks at him wide-eyed before he realizes what just happened.

“Oh my _god,”_ Louis says, swatting away Harry’s already-outstretched arms and burrowing himself under their comforter.

“I…” I’m going to get Niall,” Harry says, still sounding dazed. Louis waits for a caring God to literally strike him dead where he’s curled up in a ball in one corner of their bed.

He hears their security system beep, and then Harry and Niall’s voices talking quietly in the front hall. Talking about Louis, no doubt.

“Where are you?” Niall asks Louis once they make it into the room, the bed filled with all the fucking pillows Harry buys. If Louis was in a better state he would yell at him for not being able to tell the difference between a pillow under a blanket and his _very best friend._

“You were right,” he groans. “You were right about the fucking puppy moment shit, Niall.”

“Oh my god,” Niall says, failing very miserably to hide his glee. “What happened? Haz said you were upset and I thought it was going to be something bad.”

“It _is_ something bad _Niall,”_ Louis pokes his head out from the comforter and Niall jumps. “I just started yapping at the doorbell like a fucking dog.”

“Holy shit,” Niall says, looking like nothing could possibly have made him happier.

“Me and Liam are running away together to start a new band,” Louis announces, going back under the blanket. “Liam is the only person in the band who hasn’t laughed about this.”

“Liam’s also the only person in the band who doesn’t know about this,” Harry points out quietly while Niall and his fucking bony elbows crawl onto the bed.

“That’s adorable,” he says sagely.

“You’re out of the band,” Louis replies. That’ll show him. Louis hardly _ever_ kicks Niall out of the band.

“Seriously. I can’t believe that happened, you’re great.”

“Stop flirting with me,” Louis tells him.

* * *

_"Awwoooooooooooo!”_

“You sound like an idiot,” Harry informs Liam. He isn’t feeling very happy with Liam. It might have something to do with the fact that Louis is sitting on Liam’s chest, but probably not. No good, that Liam. Harry’s sure of it.

“I’m just trying something,” Liam says, peering down at Louis who’s sitting primly, staring right back. “I saw it on YouTube.”

“Oh, well if you saw it on YouTube,” Harry mutters.

Liam ignores him. _“Awwooooooooo!”_

Harry’s about to tell him off again when Louis suddenly throws his head back, copying the stupid howling noise Liam had been making with his own much higher-pitched version.

“Holy shit,” Harry says.

Liam’s grinning like he’s hit the lotto, and he does it again. Louis responds again, and Liam laughs so hard Louis nearly falls off his chest.

“If he remembers this when he’s human again you’re _fucked,”_ Harry points out. Louis stops howling when Harry starts talking, he notices. Not that it matters, just. He does.

* * *

As it happens, Louis _does_ remember the howling incident when he’s human again.

“I can’t _believe_ you would do something like that!” He’s yelling at Liam. He looks like he’s about two seconds away from physically attacking him, and Harry doesn’t really know if he’s supposed to stop him or not.

“Band meeting,” Louis screams, even though everyone’s already in the room. No one points that out.

“Okay,” Louis starts. “I know it’s weird for me to be the way I am, but you have to remember that I’m still _me_ while I’m… like that.”

“We know that,” Liam says slowly, knowing he’s on very thin ice. Harry does not envy him. “We just, like. Sometimes it’s easier to talk to you like you’re a puppy when you’re, y’know… a puppy. Like, you respond to it more sometimes, is all.”

Louis goes a little red at that. Harry knows he’d rather not act like a puppy at all, would much rather be the kind of stoic wolf he had thought he was going to be.

“That’s fine,” he says, but he’s still uncomfortable. Harry wants to pull him down onto his lap, but he knows he’d get swatted away.

“I just… I’m really grateful you guys help me out, and if it’s easier for you then that’s okay, but you still have to _respect_ me, y’know? It’s hard enough that--”

“Wait,” Niall says abruptly. “You think we don’t respect you?”

Liam looks close to tears. “I never meant to make it seem like that, Lou, I swear--”

The two of them are talking over each other now. Niall continues, “I’ll stop, I promise.”

“Same here,” Liam says. “Really Lou, I mean it, we’ll stop picking you up, and, and--”

“And rubbing your belly like a dog, and carrying you around in our hoodie pockets,” Niall finishes, looking completely stricken.

Louis doesn’t look much better, and Harry bites his lip to keep from laughing. He thinks he knows Louis pretty well, by now, and his face is saying one thing: _I’ve made a huge mistake._

“Well,” he says, shifting from foot to foot. “I didn’t realize you were doing that kind of thing out of _respect._ I suppose as long as that’s what it is, it wouldn’t matter what you did. As long as you still, y’know, respected me.”

“But carrying you around in our pockets like that, Lou!” Niall exclaims. “That was out of line.”

“What if you fell out?” Liam says, looking like he might pass out at the thought.

“I mean, I haven’t yet, right?” Louis says. “So, like… I guess it wouldn’t be the _worst_ thing, if you kept doing that.”

“Wanna just admit you like it, Lou?” Harry asks, sure his boyfriend isn’t still embarrassed enough to get upset over it.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Louis sniffs. “If carrying me around in your hoodie pockets and rubbing my belly and making soft nests for me to sleep in make it easier for you to keep an eye on me, it’s only in my best interest to let you do that, isn’t it?”

“No one mentioned the nests,” Liam points out.

“Well if you’re going to split hairs, _Liam,_ why don’t you just leave the band,” Louis mumbles, and that’s the end of that conversation.

The fact that he ends up sprawled across all the boys, leaning into where Harry plays with his hair for over an hour is just a coincidence, according to Louis.

* * *

 

“You can’t be serious.”

Louis recognizes that, in any relationship, people are going to say things they haven’t thought all the way through. This, he thinks, _better_ be one of those times.

“Well I was thinking,” Harry says, which does not help his case one bit, “Liam has those dogs with Sophia, right? And it’s, like, practice? Because they want kids one day, same as us, so I just thought maybe it would be good for us too?”

“Harry,” Louis says after a while. “You want us to get a dog. Us. More specifically _me._ You want _me_ to be a dog owner.”

“I figured you’d be really good with him,” Harry says. “Is that offensive?”

Louis thinks it over. “I’m not sure, actually, but that’s not the point.”

“What _is_ the point?”

“The _point_ is it would be _weird_ for me to have a dog,” Louis says. He doesn’t think he’s being unreasonable.

“But you always say that you’re not a dog,” Harry says. Jesus, he’s actually rallying for this. “And you aren’t! We all know you’re not, so why would it be weird? You’d be two different… like, things. Two different ideas.”

Louis takes a deep, slow breath.

“We’ll talk about it more later,” he finally says, so of course they get the fucking dog.

His name is Bruce and he weighs 27 thousand pounds and he likes greeting Louis by standing on his hind legs, putting his massive paws on Louis’ shoulders, and licking his face until both of them are on the ground.

It’s annoying how much Louis loves him.

He’d thought it would be weird, having a dog around during the full moon, but after a few incidents where Bruce tried to adopt him, they’ve reached an understanding. Louis doesn’t know what Bruce thinks of the fact that one of his owners is sometimes a puppy, but he _does_ know he likes sleeping curled up beside Bruce when Harry’s not around.

* * *

There’s a fine line between making sure your werepuppy boyfriend stays safe and hardcore BDSM, and Harry thinks he might be toeing it.

It’s probably his own fault, for not thinking through the dog ownership thing more carefully. Once he got Louis to agree they should get a dog he kind of leapt in.

He hadn’t considered that, sometimes, Bruce will need to go for a walk while Louis is a puppy, and Harry will have to stand in a petstore holding a puppy harness and feel deeply uncomfortable.

He buys it, but he knows it’s going to be a fight. Louis being home alone as a puppy isn’t much of an option, though, even if Harry’s just taking Bruce around for a bit. They’ve figured out that if Louis chooses to change, he’s much more human than he is during the moon. The last time Harry left him alone during the moon, he came home to Louis, stuck at the top of the stairs with Bruce barking up at him from the bottom. One of their matching teddy bears, now missing an eye, was in Louis’ mouth.

(Harry asked him what he’d been thinking, and Louis had just shrugged and said, “I panicked, I think.”). Harry only felt marginally better with leaving him human and knowing when he got back Louis would be a puppy, like he was doing. It’s worrying to him how he’s trusting his dog to take care of his boyfriend.

It’s not fair to Bruce to go without walks for days at a time, and Harry knows he can’t keep asking one of the lads to come over and hang out with Louis for the hour or so Harry’s taking Bruce out. The harness seems like the only option.

Bruce attacks as soon as Harry gets home of course, Louis following close behind him. Harry tries not to find their tiny pack so cute. (And he also makes a mental note to never refer to them as a “pack” in front of Louis)

“So,” he says. “Okay. So.”

Louis’ head tilts. If he was human, he would be raising his eyebrows, _yeah, go on love._

“Please don’t hate me,” Harry says, and then holds up Bruce’s lead and the new harness.

Bruce, of course, absolutely freaks out, as if he’d been holed up for years instead of since last night. Louis takes a step back so he won’t get knocked over by Bruce’s wagging tail (it’s only happened once, but Harry knows he’s not taking chances anymore), so it takes him a second to notice the harness. When he does, he yaps, and even Bruce goes still to watch the scene play out.

Harry looks at Louis.

Louis looks back.

Harry slowly lifts up the hand carrying the harness.

Louis _runs._

Harry knows he should have seen that coming, but it still takes him by surprise, so Louis gets a solid head start. Harry darts after him, running with his arms outstretched as if he’s coordinated to just grab Louis as he runs by. Bruce, of course, is thrilled with this development, and he quickly outruns Harry, running past him to catch up with Louis. Harry isn’t sure what Bruce is going to do when he catches up with him, but he hopes it involves stopping him so Harry can at least explain.

Louis is faster than Harry when he’s human, which means he’s much faster than him as a puppy. Thankfully, he also has tiny legs and gets tired easily, so it doesn’t take too much running for Harry to catch up with him.

“So that’s a no, then,” he says, and winces when Louis starts barking at him. He’s quite sure he’s getting cussed out. Even Bruce looks a little chagrined.

“Well we need to figure out _something!”_ Harry says after Louis finally pauses. “You can’t be here alone, and Bruce needs to go for a wa-- a _you know what_ \-- and if you don’t want to use the harness, fine, but we need to-- oh.”

Harry isn’t sure how much of that Louis even understood, but he may have an idea.

* * *

Louis _loves_ the carrier bag.

Harry decides that the articles about Harry Styles and His Man Purse that’re going to appear tomorrow are worth it for the way Louis pokes his head out from the carrier and closes his eyes against the breeze. He looks totally relaxed, and Harry lets out a little laugh before he can help himself. Louis’ eyes flash open, and Harry laughs again.

“Sorry,” he murmurs down at him. “Glad you’re enjoying the moment.”

Louis lets out a huff, but a minute later he’s back at it. Harry figures that if he could be carried around in a bag and people-watch without having to follow any social etiquette rules, he’d be pretty excited about it too.

“So we’re good then?” Harry asks. Louis doesn’t respond, obviously, but he doesn’t bark at him again, either. Harry’s taking it for the win that it is.

* * *

Harry’s two seconds away from singing a song about how the band’s on holiday and he doesn’t have to do a pap walk for another two weeks and he gets to see Louis for the first time in _days_ so he doesn’t care that it’s freezing outside.

It’s possibly not his most lyrically advanced work, but it comes from the heart.

He’d gotten a text from Liam just before he boarded his flight at LAX, telling him that Louis was still a puppy, but he’d probably be back to normal a little while after Harry gets home. Liam’s been staying over at their house to make sure Louis gets through the moon okay, sending Harry updates every hour on the hour.

Harry’s literally thinking about buying him and Sophia an island for Christmas.

He sends Liam a text, letting him know he landed, and frowns when he doesn’t get an immediate response. He knows that’s ridiculous, though, so he puts his phone down and leans back against the car door, jetlag already doing weird things to him and making him fall asleep quickly. He wakes up in front of his house, with still no text from Liam. He almost thinks he’s ditched Louis until he sees Liam’s car in inside the gate.

“Hi?” He calls once he’s inside. He immediately hears barking, and he can’t tell if it’s Louis or Bruce until the latter jumps at him.

“Where’s your daddy?” Harry asks him. Most of the time Bruce recognizes _daddy_ and _papa_ enough to run to them when asked, because he’s the smartest best dog in the whole universe.

Harry tells him that, even though Bruce doesn’t give him any information about Louis’ whereabouts.

“Harry?” Liam’s voice calls from upstairs.

“Is he upstairs?!” Harry asks Bruce in the dumb baby voice he reserves for Bruce and all other babies and dogs except Louis because he hates it. All Bruce hears is _upstairs,_ so he bolts up in front of Harry.

The scene Harry’s met with isn’t the _worst_ he’s come home to, but it’s not ideal, either.

“What have you done,” he asks Liam flatly.

“What?” Liam demands. “It’s cold outside!”

“Outside,” Harry agrees. “Li. We’re millionaires. We can afford central heating. You can turn the heat up.”

Louis is panting slightly, or at least Harry’s pretty sure he is, from what he can see of him under the _five_ sweaters and little scarves Liam’s put on him.

“Where did you even _get_ all that?” Harry asks.

“I came prepared,” Liam says proudly. Harry decides maybe the island can wait. Let him get new flatware or something for Christmas.

“He can overheat like that, you know,” Harry points out.

He’s never seen Liam move quite that fast before.

* * *

Louis can’t sleep.

He’s only just been able to control it so he doesn’t have to transform during the moon, something he’s very proud of, thank you very much. Most of the time, he’d prefer to be a little antsy around the moon like he is now than go into that weird hazy puppy state he goes into when he transforms over the moon. Tonight, though, he’s awake for more than that, which is why he’s checking his phone with the brightness turned all the way down in between sneaking peaks of Harry’s sleeping face and occasionally sticking his tongue out at him just because he can.

He could be annoyed about how Lottie’s transforming for the first time two years before Louis ever did, but he guesses it doesn’t particularly matter. Girls develop faster, and all that. The whole alpha mum thing probably didn’t hurt, either.

He’s suddenly exhausted, the moon doing weird things to him when he doesn’t transform. He’s about to gently flop on top of Harry and go to bed when his phone vibrates in his hand with a text from Fizzy.

_looooooook she looks so great !!!!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

The picture she attached is his mum, always so elegant as a wolf, like that was the way she was supposed to be all the time. Lottie--at least, the giant, almost-threatening grey wolf that he assumed was Lottie-- was standing beside her.

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” he mutters to himself, saving the photo of the two menacing-looking wolves and flopping on Harry like he’d wanted to. Let’s see _Lottie_ get carried around in a hoodie pocket.


End file.
